


Nah, She Didn't

by brownhare



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-22 09:55:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22214257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brownhare/pseuds/brownhare
Summary: Additional scenes from the timeline of "Turn of the Tide."
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Kudos: 4





	Nah, She Didn't

Lily looked up from her potions textbook as the Gryffindor boys entered the classroom. They were the same boys from the train that laughed at Severus. Since the sorting, James Potter and Sirus Black weren’t seen without the other, seemingly amplifying the other’s unruly behavior. There were two other boys behind them. Remus Lupin, while not as rowdy as the others, had a perpetual amused look on his face. Lily had a sneaking suspicion that he was whispering ideas to the other two, who followed through on his schemes. The fourth round boy, Lily recognized but didn’t remember his name was laughing noisily at whatever Potter had just said. Lily wrinkled her nose, disliking the flattery in his laugh that was obviously too loud and forced. But Potter smiled broadly, enjoying the attention. Lily glowered at Potter then turned resolutely away from him. 

Severus entered the room silently behind the herd of Gryffindors and having caught Lily’s eye returned her friendly smile. He sat down next to her. 

“We may not be in the same house, but potions together should be fun.” Lily chimed to Severus optimistically.

“Yeah. It will be fun.” Severus replied with a small, quiet grin. 

“Yeah.” She murmured softly, still unable to believe this was her life. The magical world was a combination of marvelous and frightening. She felt that Severus had prepared her sufficiently, but it was different being here, being an actual part of this new world. She was a little overwhelmed, but in the best, most thrilling way. 

Class had begun, and Professor Slughorn started his lecture emphasizing the importance of potions for witches and wizards throughout the ages. Next to Lily, Severus was scribbling notes furiously. But Lily, kept her gaze forward, concentration on every word, determined to absorb every bit of information and commit it to memory. Besides, surely she could copy Sev’s notes later and extricate the unnecessary information he jotted down. 

“The beauty with potions, my dear pupils, is they require patience! And they reward patience! You see, if the potions are brewed correctly and with great care, the effects are unparalleled by every other branch of Magic! Pure beauty!” He droned on and on, Lily felt herself growing slightly annoyed with his superfluous lecture. 

“Alright , alright! Enough with my monologue! Let’s get started!” He rubbed his hands together and rolled up his sleeves. “Turn to page 9 in your books. Today, we will be making a very simple cure for boils and pimples. I will be working alongside you up at the front of the class. Madam Pomfrey’s supply is lower than she would like and we know that she will need more!” He chortled. “Now, I don’t expect any of your potions to be up to snuff to be used in the hospital wing. But if they are points will be awarded accordingly and you will have earned a valuable first impression from me!”

Professor Slughorn quickly demonstrated the first steps, then let them get to work. Lily thought that it looked easy enough, but was surprised that potions work did require a certain degree of concentration, precision and forethought. As she meticulously prepared each ingredient and followed the steps. She soon finished the first portion of the potion and looked at her wrist watch making a mental note for when to recheck. Now she would wait. She turned to Severus, he was also done with the first steps, but he was flipping through the textbook paying little attention to her. She felt herself grow a little disappointed. 

Professor Slughorn walked through the class. He stopped in front of Sirius Black’s cauldron, “Ah. Mr. Black, is it? Good job, it seems you did everything correctly except I don’t think you grounded the snake fangs into a fine enough powder. While that won’t make the potion useless, it does affect how consistent the outcomes will be. Some doses will be too strong leaving the taker with a minor burns instead of boils, while others won’t make a difference to a minor pimple. Time will tell.” 

Lily picked up her quill and carefully wrote in her textbook, “Consistency” next to the words snake fangs.

Slughorn moved down the row and came to a stop in front of Potter

“Mister...” Slughorn paused, questioningly.

“Potter. Sir. James Potter” He gave cocky smile, attempting to appear self-assured.

“Oh my! Any relation to Fleamont Potter? He is an excellent potioneer. Very famous for his inventions!” Slughorn bursted.

“Yes, Sir. He’s my father.” Potter replied. 

“Your father? I wouldn’t have guessed by the state of your hair young man. You don’t use your own father’s potions, do you?” Slughorn laughed at a joke Lily didn’t quite understand. A couple students also snickered, Severus included. Potter looked put out. 

Potter definitely messed up his hair. “No, Sir. I like my hair as is.”

Lily looked carefully at Potter. His hair wild, his glasses smudged and sitting crookedly on his face. But his eyes and face cemented with determination. Lily found his whole demeanor startling at first, then annoying. _His hair is stupid_ she thought savagely to herself. She turned back around in her seat, but continued to listen as she watched her own potion simmer happily in front of her. Severus, no longer emerged in his textbook, caught her eye and smirked in amusement and she resumed watching the professor’s interactions.

“Ah. Well, your potion appears to be fine. Though you may have gotten carried away with the wand work.” Slughorn said knowingly and moved on. He gave a nod of approval to Remus Lupin, and said, “Just fine. It won’t be the most effective potion, but it isn’t terrible, It will all depend on how consistently you alternate between the clockwise rotation and counterclockwise rotations. Make sure you do it exactly right.” Lupin nodded and looked back to his own potion slightly dazed and confused, he then opened his book flipping through the pages and shaking his head slightly. Lily could tell he was slightly addled by the direction the professor had just given him.

Professor Slughorn continued down the row and stopped in front of the chubby boy sitting next to Remus. 

“Your name?” 

“Peter Pettigrew”

“Yes well. This is just unfortunate. We will see what you have in the end. I have high doubts this is salvageable. Did you follow any of the directions?” Pettigrew had turned a very unpleasant shade of gray. 

Severus interrupted Lily’s observation of Slughorn and asked, “Do you think this will work the same on boils and pimples? Are they really the same thing? What about ones caused by magic?” 

Lily thought for a moment and said really unsure herself, “Well I guess they are sort of the same thing aren’t they. A boil is just a pimple showing off.” She did a little twirl with her hand and slight bow of her head. Lily was making a secret jab at her sister, one only they would understand. She and Severus would observe her sister practice her ballet. Her sister wanted so badly to be the picture of grace and poise, but never managed to impress anyone. Not to mention, Petunia had recently started to struggle with acne. Severus grinned at her, but it was the booming laugh that erupted behind her, pulling her out of their private little joke. 

“Very clever! A boil is a pimple showing off!” Slughorn wheezed. 

Lily looked at him, thinking that her little inside joke wasn’t surely that funny,

“Very clever indeed! What is your name, Miss.” 

“Lily Evans.”

“Ah.” He examined her critically. “Any relation to Zenith Evans?”

“No. I don’t think so.” 

“Orla Evans?”

“Obviously not, Professor” interjected a slytherin boy with russet hair and cold, cruel eyes. Lily met his eye contact and withered ever so slightly under his glare.

“Ah, Muggleborn then?” Slughorn continued as though they hadn’t just been rudely interrupted. 

“Without a doubt, Professor. I’m surprised she doesn’t leave a trail of sludge behind her.” He whispered loudly, the ashen boy next to him smirked smugly at her. 

“No mind. Pay no mind to Mr. Mulciber he comes from a very old fashioned family.” Professor Slughorn said kindly, “Now let us see what we have concocting here. Hmmm? My goodness girl, this is spectacular. Are you sure you are muggleborn? Beginnings of a perfect brew. On par with my own, if I do say so myself. Well done Miss Evans. 10 points to Gryffindor. Ah, Mr. Snape, well done as well. Do we have some cheating going on here, or perhaps the perfect potion pair? All in jest of course. 10 points to Slytherin.”

As Slughorn moved along to the table of Mulciber and Avery, Lily took a deep breath and looked to Severus for reassurance. Severus mimicked her previous hand twirl, with considerably less elegance than Lily. He smiled.

“To be fair to old Tuny” Lily offered off handedly, “Her skin is glowing between her zits.” 

Severus sputtered a quiet laugh and returned back to his textbook. 

Slughorn moved amongst his pupils, offering praise and critiques for the remainder of the class. After Slughorn commented that Mulciber and Avery’s potions were “Very disappointing, indeed” They seemed to have lost interest in the subject all together. Instead they continued to make remarks about mud and dirt in stage whispers. Though Lily knew they were somehow related to her, she just wasn’t sure exactly how. She tried to ask Severus what they had meant, but he feigned deafness and exaggerated interest in his textbook. 

Lily glanced around the room and noticed immediately that Potter and his friends seemed excessively less jovial than they were at the beginning of class. Despite Potter getting near perfect marks on his potion, while Black and Lupin’s were above average. Instead of celebrating their first academic success at Hogwarts as Lily was trying to do, they instead were whispering angrily to each other and gathered around Petigrew’s pitiful cauldron. Lily wondered if they were upset that Slughorn had told him that his potion would only cause an explosion of painful pustules to erupt, and was therefore beyond useless. He was assigned extra homework along with the majority of the class. Lily didn’t think it was something to get upset about, but as she observed the Gryffindor boys with mild interest, she noticed that they were deliberately making his potion worse.

“Alright. Alright now,” Slughorn called amongst his students. “Our first class has come to an end. I am endlessly surprised and delighted that two Students have succeeded to make their potions acceptable for use in the Hospital Wing. Miss. Evans, Mr. Snape, would you please put your potion into the viles provided in the back. 10 additional points awarded to each for an exceptional first performance. Well done. Mr. Potter, while your potion isn’t quite up to snuff for medicinal use, it was nearly there. I will provide, 5 points to Gryffindor. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still better than I had expected from first years. Well done.”

Lily looked back to Potter. He didn’t look pleased. His face was flushed with anger. Lily thought he was being a rather sore loser. Severus followed her gaze and sniffed loudly in Potter’s direction. 

“I’m sorry, do you need a tissue?” Potter hissed at Severus.

“Are you offering?” Lily sniped back in a deadly, muted tone. 

Potter turned his head sharply to look at her. “Why are you friends with him? I would expect my friends to stand up for me. Even snively ones. Or maybe you are too busy wiping your nose?” He said to Severus. 

Severus turned a slight shade of pink. 

  
  


“Sev, what is he talking about?” Lily glanced and Mulciber and Avery. 

“Nothing, Lil. It means nothing.”

“Yeah, Lil.” Potter emphasized her pet name. “It’s absolutely nothing to a pureblood sympathizer. You are a pathetic coward, _Snivellus.”_

Lily glared at him, then stood up violently and stomped to the back of the class. Potter followed her. She collected a few vials to store her potion in. Potter gathered some as well. 

“Mr. Potter, no need to collect your potion. It was good but I told you it wasn’t good enough for Madame Pomfrey to use.” Slughorn called. 

“Oh I know, Sir.” Potter responded cheerfully. “I’m just helping Evans.”

Professor Slughorn chuckled. “How very chivalrous of you. I should have known. 5 more points to Gryffindor for representing your house well.”

Lily glared darkly at Potter, but he ignored her as they walked silently back to her desk. He set one of the several vials at her cauldron unceremoniously, holding on to the remainders. 

“What about the…” Lily began to say, but Potter held a finger up to his lips and shushed her. Flashed the most mischievous grin she had ever seen and sauntered back to his seat. His friends quickly gathered around him, suppressing laughter. She watched as they gathered Petigrew’s awful potion into several vials and hid them under their robes. They looked around the class trying to appear innocent. She narrowed her eyes, certain she didn’t really want to know what they were up to. 

She watched as Slughorn approached and vanished the contents of her peer’s cauldrons and then the bell rang. Lily gathered her belongings and walked with Severus out of the dungeons. Lily didn’t say anything. Until they reached the entrance hall. 

“I have charms next,” she said. 

“I have transfiguration.” Severus murmured. He was very quiet, too. 

“Maybe we can sit together at lunch,” Lily offered. 

“I don’t think so.” Severus glanced around. “We can maybe work on homework in the library later. I’ll meet you after dinner.” 

“Oh… Okay. Well bye then.” Lily said as Severus walked away. 

Potter stepped past her, his eyebrows raised and gave a pointed look in Severus’s direction.

Lily opened her mouth to say something when a sharp yell for her attention distracted her. 

“Lily!” Marlene McKinnon came running up to her, slightly out of breath. “Nice job in potions this morning. Do you think you can help me with the extra homework old Sluggy gave me?”

“Old Sluggy?” Lily murmured, 

“I’ll braid your hair, tomorrow. It will be so pretty!” Marlene continued. “Please? I mean, I want to braid your hair anyway!” She laughed. 

“Sure. I would love to.” She glanced back to Potter but his back was retreating towards the charms corridor with his friends. 

“On to charms I guess,” Emmaline Vance said. She had walked up to the girls with Dorcas Meadows. “I wonder what house we will be with for charms.”

It turned out that they had charms with the Ravenclaws. Lily really liked Professor Flitwick. He was a thoughtful instructor, but she guessed he was very laid back. They were given a demonstration of Wingardium Leviosa. Flitwick made it look easy, but it was not. Halfway through, Lily looked around to see that she was not the only one struggling to make her feather float in the air, even the Ravenclaws were struggling. Lily scratched her face in concentration, and tried again. Her feather rose ever so slightly and she felt a surge of pride. 

“See here, class. She here. It appears Mr. Black has managed the charm.” Flitwick called out to the class. 

Lily looked up so suddenly she felt her neck pop. Black did indeed seem to master the charm. He was making his feather dance in the air like a symphony director. Annoyingly, Potter was next to him applauding in a very exaggerated fashion. 

“That’s quite enough, now back to work.” Flitwick called out. “I said enough, Potter.” Potter gave a cheeky grin and a deep bow which earned a laugh from the rest of the class. Lily frowned and tried again. Her feather gave an ever-so feeble movement, but she was frustrated. Class ended, and Sirius Black was the only student to be successful. Lily figured she should be glad that he had gotten the Gryffindor an additional 20 points, but she was irritated. Especially because he was acting like he had just battled a dragon and won. It didn’t help that Potter was declaring, “Make way for the Charms King!” in the halls as they made their way to lunch. 

Lily walked with the rest of the girls. They giggled at the antics in front of them.

“James is pretty funny.” Emmaline said.

“Nah. He’s a complete dork.” Marlene laughed. “Sometimes it’s funny. Sometimes it’s not.”  
  


“Do you know him?” Lily asked

“My Grandma is good friends with his Mom.” She shrugged, “We would play sometimes as children. James is okay, most of the time. He tends to get a little carried away.” 

Suddenly, Potter fell down a flight of stairs while walking backwards and pretending to play a royal trumpet as Black strolled behind him giving a kingly way to other students as they passed.

Everyone howled with laughter, but no one laughed harder than Potter. His friends were able to help him up between breathless laughs. 

Lily entered the Great Hall, clutching the stitch in her side and wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. She loaded her plate with chicken-pot pie and listened as Marlene told the girls about all the other students that she knew. Marlene was telling a very funny story about a third year Hufflepuff boy named Jack McConnely, when there was a screech from the Slytherin table. 

Mulciber, Avery, an older girl Lily did not know and Severus, were all clutching their faces and yelling. Professors ran to their table and were directing them to the hospital wing. Lily caught a glimpse of the girls face, she was covered in painful red boil, some erupting green and yellow pus. 

Lily heard glass breaking down the end of her table and “Pete! Be careful, will you?” Lily saw that Potter and Black were shaking from trying to contain their silent laughter. Lupin had a worried crease on his face and was trying to direct Petigrew away from a broken glass vial under the table. 

With a great shuffle, lunch was over and students were heading to their next classes. Lily ran to catch up with Potter, Black, Lupin, and Petigrew. 

“I know what you did!” She said. 

“Do you?” Potter asked. His eyes glittering. 

“Pretty good, I would say.” Black said, his face bright with humor. 

“No! Not pretty good! Why would you do that?”

“It’s sort of obvious, isn’t?” Potter said pointedly. Lily just stared at him. 

“Okay. Maybe not,” Then he amended. “We were avenging your honor.”

“What are you talking about?” Lily demanded.

“Avery and Mulciber were making fun of you, Evans.” Lupin said, a little more gently than the other two had been.

“What about Severus and the girl?” Liy pointed out angrily “They were innocent!”

“I missed and got the Flint girl by accident” Black shrugged nonchalantly “And Snape, well, I just don’t like him.” Black added. Potter gave a cruel laugh. 

Lily huffed, “Well, Sev is my friend. Don’t treat him that way.” 

Potter put his hands up in surrender, “Okay. Okay. You can go ahead and pull that stick out of your arse now.” 

Lily stomped her foot, and was immediately embarrassed by her childish display. She turned on her heell and walked towards transfiguration. She heard the boys shuffle behind her at a respectful distance. When she reached the class room she slammed herself down into the desk next to Marlene. 

“What’s got you all worked up?” Marlene asked in a muted whisper. 

“Them” She nodded towards the offending boys as they entered the class. Potter, to his credit looked a little sheepish. 

Lily seethed in anger throughout the entire lecture. She became more frustrated when Potter was able to transfigure his match into a needle and back in under five minutes. When class ended, he was the only student able to perform the spell, but she thought her match did look more metallic and Emmaline’s match was definitely the shape of a needle. 

The Gryffindor’s finished up their first day of classes, and Lily met Severus just outside the Great Hall. 

“I don’t think I will be able to go to the library tonight.” He told her, his face still cover in small red marks. “I think I will just go to my common room.”

“Okay.” Lily said a little disappointed. “Do you know what happened?” She indicated towards the marks. 

“No. but I have a guess.” He said moodily, glaring in the direction of Potter and Black approaching. “See you later.” he said and made his way over to the other Slytherins

After a, thankfully, uneventful dinner, Lily and the other girls went back to Gryffindor tower. Lily, true to her word helped Marlene and others with their potions homework. They soon turned to charms, and Lily was able to accomplish _Wingardium Leviosa_ on her second attempt. 

When the girls were still working on their homework, Black and Potter came bursting through the portrait hole.  
  
“Evans! You snitched!” Black bellowed at her as Potter glared. 

“No she didn’t.” Lupin said as he came through the portrait. “Pete dropped a vial of that potion under the Gryffindor table at lunch then apparently another in transfiguration. I bet Professor Mcgonagall and Slughorn had a conversation.” Lupin added grimly. 

“Did you snitch, Evans?” Potter asked. 

“No. I didn’t. Besides, haven’t you heard? Snitches get stitches.” Lily deadpanned. 

The corners of Potter’s mouth twitched. “What are stitches?” 

“You don’t know what stitches are?” Lily asked him. “You’re taking the mickey.”

“He’s not.” Lupin said. “Muggle healers use a needle and thread to sew up wounds.”

Potter pulled a face, “That’s barbaric! Don’t mess with muggles, then!” he laughed “Sorry, Evans. Didn’t mean to accuse… we just didn’t know how we got caught and now we have detention on Friday night. Heat of the moment and all… so sorry” He said lightly. 

“You never know, detention could be fun.” Black said. “Can’t wait for my mum to get the letter telling her how I viciously attacked the Slytherin house. First, I’m sorted into Gryffindor. Then I get detention on the very first day while disfiguring Slytherins. “ He wiped a mock tear. “She’ll be so proud.” 

Potter sniggered. Then looked back to Lily, while walking backwards up the boys staircase. “No harm, no foul right?” She narrowed her eyes dangerously at him. “I don’t like being accused of things I didn’t do, Potter.” He stumbled slightly, but didn’t fall. His face drained of cockiness.

“Er… right. Catch ya later, Evans.”

“No you won’t.” she said. And turned gracefully on her toes and went back to her friends who were watching the whole seen unfold. 

Lily was the first of the girls to head up to bed. When she entered the dormitory, she found a large owl perched outside her window. She let it in and took the crudely wrapped package from the bird before it flew away. On the package “Evans” was written in untidy, small letters. She carefully unwrapped a small piece of fabric that had the words “I’m Sorry” embroidered into it. It was so ugly. There was even an attempt at an embroidered golden flower in the corner. He must have gotten bored, because there were only two pathetic petals on it. Lily found the note attached. It said, “I know you didn’t snitch, but I’m still giving you stitches. -- James P.S. Muggles are still weird. Sewing up wounds. Honestly. P.S.S Black is sorry, too.”

Lily thought about throwing the stupid attempt of a peace offering away, but couldn’t find herself to do so. She smiled. This was stupid, so stupid. But maybe, also a little funny. She found she couldn’t hate it. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you find an annoying typo, let me know and I'll correct it. Teamwork makes the dream work.


End file.
